By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Ethiopian parliament on Tuesday approved a bill axing the existing 29 ministries to 19 in pursuance of making institutions more efficient and free of corruption, according to the country's premier.

This is the first major restructuring of the executive body since Africa’s youngest leader Abiy Ahmed came to power on April 2 and was a part of his reform drives to make the government more efficient and responsive.

“The bill is deemed essential to make government responsive to the needs of the people, to make frugal use of available resources and to make institutions capable of creating wealth,” Ahmed told the parliament.

The prime minister also said the bill was also deemed necessary to succeed in the country’s fight against corruption.

The restructuring consists of separating responsibilities that were clogged up in single ministries and combining institutions responsible with more or less similar tasks into one.

The Ministry of Peace has been announced as the only new institution in the Cabinet.

As part of the restructuring, the existing ministries of Trade and Industry have been merged, while the ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources have been split.

The last six months also saw numerous ethnic based clashes in the country, resulting in the killing of hundreds and the displacement of 2.8 million people making Ethiopia number one in the world in the number of people displaced in 2018.

However, tens of thousands of the displaced have been rehabilitated and rejoined their respective communities over the past weeks.